I enjoyed Vanilla very much, it was my favorite time not only in WoW but in my whole online life. Of course in WotLK, Cata, MoP I dreamed about Vanilla realm. And onve I found one ... It was non-official realm, and ofc I wont type its name here for knows reasons. But you know, it was 99% Vanilla look alike with only few small bugs. I almost pissed my pants when I created my char there. It was in 2011 btw.But all the fun faded very fast. Blue poster was right - it was not 2004-2005, it was 2011, it was another time. Vanilla is gone and there is no way back. I played on this realm for 1,5 months with a few friends, but very soon we got bored and left.You see I had nothing againts pvp disbalance, nothing againts 3 items per boss per 40 people, I enjoyed it more I enjoy game now. But only one thought I shall do all this AGAIN. All this way from MC to Naxx instantly made me lose all interest.Vanilla time was fun and its gone forever. You will not able to gather the same friends, same community. Even if you will it will be not so fun as it was first time.

Hovewer I dont get any Blizzard cant allow one realm per expansion to stay. If even non-fficial guys can do that, why Blizzard cant?

people who talk and praise vanilla sound like my almos 70 year old father memorising the 60's it sound so ridiculous that it has become a joke.

the 60's had its good points and bad points just like vanilla did. I have no doubt many people would genuinely enjoy living in the 60's just like many people would genuinely enjoy playing vanilla wow again. Its not just nostalgia some people actually preferred it back then

If you believe the game itself was better back then, then yes you are looking through rose tinted glasses, yes, you enjoyed it the most, because it was new, that's it.

You're SO wrong! You don't get it. Gameplay changed into a completely different game. Period!And some people liked the completely different gameplay a lot more than currents gameplay.

This is in no way related, to any new more advanced or older features, bugs or whatever.The perfect wow, would be the vanila wow gameplay, which has in addition also all the extra cool features n gadgets n blingies n whatever that mop currently has! (except lfr N lfd not included)

By changed you mean you no longer spam 1 button in PvE and don't global people in PvP? Yeah, i agree.

Vanilla gameplay WAS the same as it is now but with less spells to use, less utility etc, hybrids didn't really exist, paladins spent all their raid time single target buffing people with 5 minute blessings, warlocks spent hours before raids farming soulshards, the gameplay was bad, the leveling was bad, the boss mechanics were bad.

If it was anything but nostalgia you'd be playing on the vanilla private servers, but you're not, you're here complaining here.

Vanilla gameplay WAS the same as it is now but with less spells to use, less utility etc, hybrids didn't really exist, paladins spent all their raid time single target buffing people with 5 minute blessings, warlocks spent hours before raids farming soulshards, the gameplay was bad, the leveling was bad, the boss mechanics were bad.

don't forget about bosses having limits on the number of debuffs they can recieve...

By changed you mean you no longer spam 1 button in PvE and don't global people in PvP? Yeah, i agree.

Vanilla gameplay WAS the same as it is now but with less spells to use, less utility etc, hybrids didn't really exist, paladins spent all their raid time single target buffing people with 5 minute blessings, warlocks spent hours before raids farming soulshards, the gameplay was bad, the leveling was bad, the boss mechanics were bad.

What both of you are doing is stating your own opinions as facts.

As for you, all I can say is you don't actually have a clue of how the game actually was in vanilla. You didn't spam one button in pve. In fact, pve rotations are much easier to perform now then in vanilla. Less spells to use didn't mean less in-depth gameplay, and overall the game didn't have the cheap ability feel it does now. Then again, there are major, undeniable gameplay changes from vanilla to now. But are they for the better? No idea, but why do you try to tell people what they should think? Do you actually have a problem if I personally liked vanilla more then now? If you do, you should get a medical check-up, not even joking.

Do you actually have a problem if I personally liked vanilla more then now? If you do, you should get a medical check-up, not even joking.

I like vanilla more than MoP, because it was new to me, but to say the rotations were harder is a joke, excluding the lore i can't see any gameplay feature that was better in vanilla than it is now.

Please... my whole PvE rotation which includes some heroic bosses is spamming penance, holy fire and smite on the boss, while letting "smart heals" do the job, with the occasional pw:s, pom and 1 min cd spirit shells on whole raid. If you actually think this can qualify by any means as "hard", then I'm sorry for you.

Edit: and no, I didn't like vanilla more because it was new to me. I happened to like TBC more then vanilla, and it was 2 years old to me at the beginning, and 4 years at the end. This whole "new" argument is flowed as far as I'm concerned. I liked it for it's gameplay, which I happen to like more then current gameplay, and for it's social factor, which nowadays is completely lacking. Please don't bother trying to convince me that you know better then I do why I liked something or didn't like another thing.

-Cough- Ahem, as much as I'd like to rain of your parade, I personally have nothing against people liking WoW the way it was in the past, but we have to move forward or we'll lose more people.

(And when I say we I mean us as a community, even though I'd like to draw for blizzard one day, I'm only 18 so technically I'm not an adult yet in their terms, even though I am in English terms, that and I've got much to prove,to improve, to learn and to inspire.)

I like vanilla more than MoP, because it was new to me, but to say the rotations were harder is a joke, excluding the lore i can't see any gameplay feature that was better in vanilla than it is now.

Please... my whole PvE rotation which includes some heroic bosses is spamming penance, holy fire and smite on the boss, while letting "smart heals" do the job, with the occasional pw:s, pom and 1 min cd spirit shells on whole raid. If you actually think this can qualify by any means as "hard", then I'm sorry for you.

As opposed to downranking your 1 heal in vanilla and spamming it? So difficult, indepth and complicated.

-Cough- Ahem, as much as I'd like to rain of your parade, I personally have nothing against people liking WoW the way it was in the past, but we have to move forward or we'll lose more people.

And you believe "moving on" has anything to do with not voicing opinion? I find that... disturbing... And FYI, when WoW started "moving forward", it also started declining in numbers - that is in WotLK. This was only overshadowed for a while by adding asian realms and then russian realms - which have either different subscription modes or much lower costs then the original EU / US realms. STILL, the numbers dwindled in the long term (I'm excluding the obvious surge of players when a new expansion comes out). Sure, this can be explained in a number of ways, one of them being the relative lack of novelty. However, these are also undeniable facts. Just as an example: look at arena participation - we have on all european battlegroups together now about as much participation as we used to have in any single large battlegroup in TBC. That should really sound the alarm, at least a littlebit...

No, very early WotLK was, and then it started going down. I'm only talking about WoW EU and US, no Russia, China, TW. And please don't tell me that 1 month and a half of WotLK made peak of subs on it's own merits, it's hilarious. If anything, the extremely poor gameplay of arena season 5 combined with the Naxx remake into a gigantic loot coffin had very much to do with losing subs.

As opposed to downranking your 1 heal in vanilla and spamming it? So difficult, indepth and complicated.

One heal? Don't know what class you played in Vanilla, but my class had 5 heals back then, which had several ranks each, and which required decision-making both on which heal to use and which rank of that heal. It has slightly more heals now, but you don't use them. Like ever. Top healing ability in raid: Atonement (smart heal). Second healing ability: Divine Aegis (shield proc off the smart heal). Only these 2 abilities together make up more then 70% of my overall healing.Are you actually trying to tell me that topping healing meters via smart heals is in any way entertaining, good mechanics and hard to use? Yes, downranking heals in vanilla actually required more pondering on actions then spamming damage on bosses does now. I'm actually raiding ToT while watching SC2 streams for the WHOLE raid duration, that's how "hard" and "in depth" mechanics are now. Difficulty is really a joke, please don't bother trying to prove me wrong on this one.

No, very early WotLK was, and then it started going down. I'm only talking about WoW EU and US, no Russia, China, TW. And please don't tell me that 1 month and a half of WotLK made peak of subs on it's own merits, it's hilarious. If anything, the extremely poor gameplay of arena season 5 combined with the Naxx remake into a gigantic loot coffin had very much to do with losing subs.

As opposed to downranking your 1 heal in vanilla and spamming it? So difficult, indepth and complicated.

One heal? Don't know what class you played in Vanilla, but my class had 5 heals back then, which had several ranks each, and which required decision-making both on which heal to use and which rank of that heal. It has slightly more heals now, but you don't use them. Like ever. Top healing ability in raid: Atonement (smart heal). Second healing ability: Divine Aegis (shield proc off the smart heal). Only these 2 abilities together make up more then 70% of my overall healing.Are you actually trying to tell me that topping healing meters via smart heals is in any way entertaining, good mechanics and hard to use? Yes, downranking heals in vanilla actually required more pondering on actions then spamming damage on bosses does now. I'm actually raiding ToT while watching SC2 streams for the WHOLE raid duration, that's how "hard" and "in depth" mechanics are now. Difficulty is really a joke, please don't bother trying to prove me wrong on this one.

Please list these 5 heals then, can't remember 5 heals on the priest that were used in the raids.

Edit: And yes, perhaps disc is easier to heal with than holy was in vanilla, didn't know disc was so mindless.

And it's not just disc. All healer gameplay nowadays revolves around smart AE healing. And nobody runs oom, ever. Back in Vanilla, you actually needed to pay attention to what you're healing and with what you're healing

-Cough- Ahem, as much as I'd like to rain of your parade, I personally have nothing against people liking WoW the way it was in the past, but we have to move forward or we'll lose more people.

And you believe "moving on" has anything to do with not voicing opinion? I find that... disturbing... And FYI, when WoW started "moving forward", it also started declining in numbers - that is in WotLK. This was only overshadowed for a while by adding asian realms and then russian realms - which have either different subscription modes or much lower costs then the original EU / US realms. STILL, the numbers dwindled in the long term (I'm excluding the obvious surge of players when a new expansion comes out). Sure, this can be explained in a number of ways, one of them being the relative lack of novelty. However, these are also undeniable facts. Just as an example: look at arena participation - we have on all european battlegroups together now about as much participation as we used to have in any single large battlegroup in TBC. That should really sound the alarm, at least a littlebit...

AllianceDuck here.This is my main was using my ducky by accident, any way, MOVING FORWARD is the only damn way they're going to keep it running.

I don't care about your opinion in this matter MINE is LAW WMAHHAHAHAHA!!... Jk

Any way your opinion is valid but, what I'm saying is though it was harder to gain it back then, I'm sure they could imply this idea to make it harder to get the things you want, but moving backwards?

Are you mad? if we went back to the beginning where WoW was new and had little to no subs would that really be the best option? I don't know what is was like back then, but maybe if you interacted with people say if you wanted to do LFD (if you have friends to do it with)

I'm sure you'd mind not flying and trying to get to IMPOSSIBLE places, like in Deepholm just run around I'm sure you can 'somehow' get to the dungeon all the way up there, by dying loads of times and being murdered by alliance dogs and Horde maniacs.

I'm sure you'd like to run all the way to the dungeons again and what not, but I rather like flying around, not via flight path, but it does help sometimes since those flight paths can't get you up to certain dungeons or raids.

And it's not just disc. All healer gameplay nowadays revolves around smart AE healing. And nobody runs oom, ever. Back in Vanilla, you actually needed to pay attention to what you're healing and with what you're healing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46yJL8eFxaQ

That paladin is doing one of the hardest vanilla bosses and look how little he's doing=S

Watched a priest healer PoV aswell, he's not using any heal except one, which i honestly don't know the name of because the icons/names have changed.